Airbag & FF Safety

[ehetu]

At a recent extrication training session, one of our officers said he preferred not to use the air bag deflator (metal disk that attaches to steering wheel to pierce air bag in case it inflates) because it might injure someone and that you can disable all airbags on most vehicles by cutting a few inches out of the positive battery lead anyways. I know some vehicles come with up to a dozen airbags and fear that cutting the battery cable may not be 100 percent effective....

We don't get many extrication calls in a year so I don't have much practical experience to back this up. Does anyone have experience/stories to tell about air bags inflating during extrication? Please share you experience!


Edmond
Chelsea FD

[colin911]

Here's my 2 cents worth ....

As we all know, airbags are everywhere in the vehicle nowadays.
One of the first things we do when we respond to a MVC is disconnect the battery (negative first, then postive) but that doesn't mean everything is safe right away. Most, if not all cars have capacitors that hold the charge for the airbags. Once the battery is disconnected, the drainage time for the charge can be anywhere from 1-4 minutes. We use a Holmatro steering wheel restraint ... it fits over the steering wheel and if the airbag goes off, it doesn't puncture it, but will absorb the energy and displace it back into the steering wheel.
Having said that, there are still other airbags that you have to be aware of.
A great reference guide to have on your truck is the Holmatro Rescuers Guide to Vehicle Safety systems. It shows almost every vehicle made and how to figure out its year and where airbags are, seatbelt pretensioners, and battery locations in the vehicles (all are not underneath the hood).
Hopefully that helps you out a bit.

Colin

[Leafs Fan]

Very good points Colin911, FYI, the Holmatro extrication book is also available on disk that you can use in the laptop in the pump. It allows a quick search . In my opinion both are a valuable resource for doing extrications in today's vehicles.

[Michael13]

We had a training night last winter and we learned about various vehicles and their air bags. The most surprizing fact that night was that some european cars have the side curtain airbag beside the drivers head. This air bag is deployed using a presurized gas shock that is hidden in the top of the A post. When you cut a roof off, say in a rollover, when do you make the cut? In the A, B, C, d, etc post. Firefighters have been hurt cutting into the gas shocks. Something to look foir when you are extracating. these shcoks are around 3000 psi im told and are very dangerious.

[NovaT]

I posted some info under the speed thread by mistake.

Just to let you know there is a new "net" that is used to protect you from air bags in the dash. It covers the complete dash and is reusable. NYFD has been testing it and so far looks good. You can see a short clip of it if you go to www.novafire.ca products, Fire Hooks Unlimited and click on "Fire Rescue net"

[Red_Devil]

dead link there Nova boy

[NovaT]

I just tried it & it's good. Give it another shot.